Following President Bush's disaster declaration for the wildfires
burning in California, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has begun significant
federal response and recovery activity to assist the state, impacted
local communities and individual Californians. FEMA also continues to
help California with costs associated with fighting both recent and new
wildfires.

Last night after returning from a trip to California to view fire
damage, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness
and Response, Michael D. Brown, approved a Fire Management Assistance
Grant for the Whitmore fire in Shasta County - the ninth such grant for
the state just in the last week. This grant allows the federal
government to reimburse California for up to 75 percent of the cost of
fighting this fire. Eligible costs can include expenses for field
camps; equipment use, repair and replacement; tools, materials and
supplies; and mobilization and demobilization activities.

Today, the following federal response and recovery activities will
be coordinated by FEMA:

The primary Disaster Field Office (DFO), the command center for the
federal and state response, is operational in Pasadena, CA. Today,
federal and state officials will work to determine locations for
satellite DFOs in San Diego and in the San Bernardino/Riverside area.

FEMA employees will help staff a disaster assistance center organized
by the city of San Diego. FEMA will organize additional Disaster
Recovery Centers this week to provide one-on-one contact with disaster
victims.

Teams of Community Relations specialists will begin to deploy
into the affected disaster areas to provide face-to-face information,
advice, and assistance to disaster victims.

Housing inspectors are
being pre-positioned near impacted areas to immediately move in once it
is safe to do so. Inspection of damaged homes is an important
continuation of the victim assistance process.

The FEMA
teleregistration number (1-800-621-FEMA [3362] or TTY 1-800-462-7585
for the speech and hearing impaired) continues to accept telephonic
registrations from disaster victims in several languages.

Work by the
following federal agencies is now being coordinated by FEMA as part of
the federal response to the fires: the U.S. Corps of Engineers is
providing debris technicians and Geospatial Information System support;
the Department of Transportation is providing transportation support as
needed; the Department of Energy is coordinating with local power
utility districts and assessing power needs; the General Services
Administration is providing contract and leasing support; and the
Public Health Service is providing public health liaisons to monitor
air quality and assess health systems needs (hospitals, etc.). The U.S.
Forest Service continues to provide direct fire-ground support.

FEMA's
Regional Operations Center in Oakland, CA, is maintaining a 24-hour
activation to support the state and local response to the fires.

On March 1, 2003, FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security. FEMA's continuing mission within the new department
is to lead the effort to prepare the nation for all hazards and
effectively manage federal response and recovery efforts following any
national incident. FEMA also initiates proactive mitigation
activities, trains first responders, and manages Citizen Corps, the
National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration.